1.—14.

20

59. Do you not think, in the case of any school under 15, it would be wise to fix a minimum salary to be paid to any teacher recognised by the Board ?—lt would be very beneficial to the teacher no doubt, for they have a very small allowance. 60. For an uncertificated teacher what salary would you be inclined to fix —£60 ?—£so ; an ordinary servant would get £25 for household work. 61. £50 besides her board and lodging? —Yes. 62. If £4 a head capitation were given you would not get that £50 until there were 13 pupils ? —Very few of our small schools would have 13 pupils. 63. Your small schools have an average a.little under 6? —Yes. 6*4. An average of 5-7, and you would lose very heavily on those ? —Yes. 65. In the interests of teachers and of education you think there ought to be a fixed minimum salary ? —I think it would be a wise thing. 66. In that case what would you think of the expediency of requiring, in money or in board and lodging, a contribution from the parents in order to bring up the income to the minimum salary ? —lt would be desirable, but 1 think it would be a heavy tax on them. 67. Suppose you had 6 and we gave £5 a head, that would come to £30 ? —Yes. 68. If you had a minimum salary of £80 you would want £50 more ?—Yes. 69. And if you counted board and lodging as £30 you would want a money-contribution of £20 : do you think that the principle would be right ? —The principle is good ; if we do not earn £40 or £50 by capitation we would have to make up the difference. 70. You think the contribution could not come from the parents ? —No ; the parents are not equal to it. 71. In that case, if you gave a capitation of £5 per head, and fixed a minimum salary at £60 for an uncertificated teacher, as soon as there was 6 of an average attendance the capitation grant would amount to £30 ?—Yes. 72. And if the board and lodging were equivalent to £30 they would be given a teacher?-— Yes. 73. You would not recognise any school under 6 unless the householders contributed, otherwise it would come out of the colonial revenue —or, rather, out of the revenue of the Boards, though the Boards would expect to get it from the colonial revenue? —Yes. 74. The Chairman.] You say, Captain Baillie, that a large number of the household schools in this district are in places very remote from each other : how long have those schools been in existence?— Some of them fifteen or twenty years; they have gradually When the Board first came into existence the whole of the schools in the district numbered only about nineteen. 75. It is virtually, then, within the last ten years that these schools have become so numerous ? —Yes ; say fifteen at the outside. 76. The people whose families are being educated in this manner are mostly sheep-farmers ? — Most of them have sheep, some have cattle, some a small block of land. 77. Are any great proportion of them in a position to send their children into the larger 'schools in Picton or Blenheim to receive what might be considered a superior education ?—There might be, perhaps, one or two of them. 78. Judging from the report of your. Inspector, have those schools proved successes, so far as the children are concerned ?—I think so ; they seem satisfactory. They are composed of nearly all young children of from five to ten years of age. As soon as they reach the ages of twelve or fourteen they go to work, help on the farm, and so on; they do not receive much more education. 79. Very few of them pass the higher standards?— Very few indeed. 80. What is the highest standard of education they receive before they go to work ?—Generally the Fourth Standard. It is even so in the larger schools of the colony. 81. Do you think an uncertificated teacher qualified to give them education up to the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Standards if they had the opportunity to receive it ?—There have been pupilteachers in some of the schools qualified to pass the children up to those standards —nine-tenths of them, I should say. Many of them hold an E certificate, I think. 82. Are there many males among those teachers, or are they nearly all young women ?—I should say at least 90 per cent, are females. Now and then we have a male, who is perhaps out-at-elbows, and cannot get a school owing to one of the failings of human nature ; but several whom I could mention have done excellent work. 83. These young female teachers live with the families, and are virtually governesses, performing domestic duties ? —Most likely they do assist in many ways. 84. They are entirely at the mercy of the families with whom they live? —I fancy so. 85. Notwithstanding the report your Inspector may give as to the quality of the education, they are liable to be dismissed at any time without the sanction of the Board : the Board has no control over her?—No ; we get a resignation, some one else is appointed, and that is about the long and the short of it. 86. Supposing the parents were required to contribute to the support of those teachers independently in a building alongside the school, do you think many of those schools would be in demand ?—I cannot say ; most likely the householder would not be in possession of funds to do so. 87. If the Board itself was to assist them in erecting schools with small residences attached, do you think the parents would be prepared to contribute to the support of the teacher fairly ?—I do not think so ; one or two of them might. 88. Are we to assume in cases of this kind that it is on account of services outside of their duties as teachers that those governesses are boarded and lodged free ?—I fancy so. 89. You have said, in reference to pupil-teachers, that there are very few males offering themselves ?—I cannot at the moment call to mind the name of one male pupil-teacher.